Yohji Yamamoto

Helping to lead the charge of the avant-garde emerging from Japan beginning in the 1970s, Yohji Yamamoto branded his work with both of those aesthetic and geographic perspectives. With his first line begun in 1977, and a Paris debut in 1981, Yamamoto has had an international impact on fashion for four decades.

Though beginning his career path in law school, which he graduated in 1966, he gave up that vocation in order to assist his mother in her dressmaking business. He then proceeded to get a degree in 1969 from Bunka Fashion College.

With master tailoring skills learned from his start with his mother and honed over the succeeding years, Yohji creates designs that are frequently removed from current trends. His signature silhouettes tend to the oversized, with textural variety, and while cutting edge, hearken back to his Japanese roots.